Mona and Russell Hauer starved their 8 year old adopted son, leaving him barely alive. The boy was the size of a 4 year old, his bones protruding and his abdomen distended. His parents routinely beat him with a broom handle and forced him to sleep in an unfinished basement with a bucket to urinate in and an alarm on… Read more »
A severely malnourished 15 year old girl was found wandering barefoot on the side of a road in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, crying, after escaping the basement dungeon where she had been confined for the past six years by her father, Chad Chritton, and stepmother, Melinda Drabek-Chritton. The girl had been pulled from school to be homeschooled after… Read more »
A 14 year old Colorado boy was kept padlocked in a small room with no light and boarded up windows by his mother, Amanda Joliff, for all but a few hours a day. The teen was allowed one meal a day, if that, which came to a total of about four meals a week. The family’s house was filthy, smelled… Read more »
Six year old Khalil Wimes was savagely beaten, tortured, and starved to death by his parents, Tina Cuffie and Floyd Wimes. The child slept on a soiled mattress in a room devoid of toys, and in the end his body was entirely covered with injuries. Khalil parents claimed they were homeschooling him, but appear to have not filed the necessary… Read more »
Jeffrey and Rebecca Trebilcock systematically starved their five adopted children, one boy and four girls, all between the ages of 10 and 13. The abuse came to light when the boy, 13, was admitted to the emergency room too weak to stand. After years of malnutrition and food deprivation, he was the size of a seven year old. The couple’s four biological… Read more »
Eight year old Christina Glenn died of severe food deprivation and medical neglect. At the end of her life, starvation left her bones as brittle as twigs. Christina ultimately died from lack of medical care after her femur shattered, likely on its own. After her death, her two siblings, aged 6 and 7, were taken into protective custody and hospitalized… Read more »
Makayla Norman had cerebral palsy and was unable to walk, talk, or care for herself. Her mother homeschooled her and occasionally hired a nurse to help with her care. Makayla’s condition at the time of her death at age 14 was described by the homicide detective as “horrific.” Makayla’s hair and eyebrows were infested with lice and her body was… Read more »
Hana Williams was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008; three years later, at 13 years old, she was dead at the hands of her parents. Hana was denied food by her adoptive parents as a punishment, leaving her too thin to retain sufficient body heat when her parents put her out of the house in the cold Washington state weather as… Read more »
Seven year old Chandler Grafner starved to death at the hands of his guardian, Jon Phillips. In a case described as “horrific,” Phillips locked Chandler in a dark linen closet where he died of starvation and dehydration, surrounded by his own excrement and screaming for something to eat and drink. Phillips, the father of Chandler’s half brother, Dominic, had developed an… Read more »
Dennis Merryman was 8 years old when he died of starvation. He had been adopted from Russia some years earlier along with four brothers and sisters. His Maryland parents, Samuel and Donna Merryman, devout Christians who served as Sunday school teachers, homeschooled Dennis and his siblings. When Dennis died in January of 2005, he weighed 37 pounds, 2 pounds lighter… Read more »